ORANGE City remain on top of the Orange District Cricket Association first grade ladder despite a tight loss to CYMS on Saturday.
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This round of first grade matches had to be reduced to one-day matches after the first day was washed out.
This wasn’t a problem for City or CYMS as they both batted well at Wade Park before CYMS claimed a three-wicket win.
City won the toss and batted first, with opener Matt Findlay making 68.
Shaun Grenfell, given multiple chances, made the most of his fortune to make 54, while Ben Nexhip (32) and James Conn (26) also contributed.
City finished their 40 overs on 6-202, a competitive total.
Sam Dwyer bowled well for CYMS, taking 3-40 off his eight overs.
Nick Wright (1-28) and Luke Clarke (1-44) also grabbed a wicket each.
Findlay said the team was feeling confident of defending their total, but knew it wouldn’t be easy.
“When you get those sort of totals, you go into the bowling confident,” Findlay said.
“But when a team has guys like Trent Colley, Luke Clarke and Nick Wright batting in the top six, you’re always going to be in for a tough game.”
CYMS chipped away at the total and were 2-116 after 20 overs.
Dave Neil (45) and Clarke (55) put on an important 73-run partnership for the third wicket.
John Warrington made 36 and Jack Sharpe scored the winning runs, belting two fours and a three to push his team to 7-204 and the victory.
Andrew Rutledge (2-19) and James Conn (2-39) were in the wickets for City but it wasn’t enough as CYMS claimed the win.
“It was a good game of cricket. I thought we bowled reasonably well,” CYMS captain Trent Colley said.
“With the bat, I thought it was a good chase. We really had to dig in. It was good to see John Warrington score runs freely. Jack Sharpe did well.”
Findlay said his side didn’t bowl as well as they could have.
“We let ourselves down in the first 20 overs with our bowling and our fielding,” he said.
“CYMS were about 120 off the first 20 overs. We bowled well in the second 20 overs.
“Batting’s been our problem at this time of the year in previous seasons. This time we batted well, but our bowling was a little off. We just have to put it together.”